Health Insurance: How to Ensure a Good Package?

Purchasing health insurance has become a need in the US. If you are not covered under an adequate healthcare plan, then you can simply forget about going to the hospital without incurring a massive bill worth thousands of dollars. Although the government provides us with a healthcare plan of its own, many Americans are ineligible for such a plan. Either that or their specific requirements are not covered under the government scheme.

If you are not covered under an adequate healthcare plan, then your hospital bills can be in the thousands of dollars for a single visit

This is where private health insurance companies come into the picture, offering many coverage plans that have various premium charges, tailored to the diverse needs posed by millions of Americans. Selecting a policy for yourself may seem like an easy task, but there are a few common mistakes which many people make while selecting a healthcare plan, which often result in bad experiences by the end.

To ensure you don’t make the same mistakes, here are a few points you should keep in mind.

Avoid Being Under-insured

Being under-insured or over-insured is definitely a thing, although the latter is not a point of concern since nobody dislikes having some extra healthcare protection. As for being under-insured, now that is definitely a problem. Imagine going to the hospital and your insurance barely covering half of the total cost, all because you wanted to save a few bucks on the insurance premium every month. Does that seem like a good bargain to you?

Being under-insured means that although you have insurance, it’s not adequate to cover your medical bills

The trick is to select a plan which is the best fit for your needs. You need to take into consideration all the points, such as cost of the plan, coverage limitations, and applicability to your individual health. Remember, the point of health insurance is to offer you protection against hefty medical expenditure in the time of need, so it needs to perform that role when, and if, the time comes.

If you are purchasing one for the entire family, then consider the overall cumulative benefit of the plan against its cost to assess whether it’s the best one. Getting a top-up plan for family members is a great option when affordability disallows for an expensive plan, although you’d need a slightly bigger plan for yourself to ensure proper coverage of your family members.

Don’t Overlook the Sub-limits

The claim limits written in a big font on the health plan brochure are not the only limits you’d be subjected to when the time comes to get your hospital bill reimbursed. Many healthcare plans also come with sub-limits, placing a cap on the maximum which may be reimbursed if expenditure is done on certain factors, such as a limit on room rents.

It’s best to opt for a plan which does not have any sub-limits at all, as that would make it much easier for you to avoid any unanticipated medical expenditure.

Exclusions Are Of Paramount Importance

Unfortunately, we do not have universal healthcare coverage in the US, which means there are some diseases that are not covered under insurance schemes (unless you sign-up with a specialized insurance plan that covers such a disease).

A big mistake which is fairly common is that people ignore the exclusions part of the deal when signing up with a healthcare policy, only to find out later on that the disease which they are suffering from is not even covered under their healthcare policy. This is why it is of paramount importance that you carefully analyze all the exclusions which are part of the policy, and then decide whether the plan fits your needs.

Don’t Lie About Your Pre-Existing Conditions

The temptation to lie while signing up for a healthcare plan with an insurance company is definitely there in cases where medical history is poor enough substantially increase the insurance premium which is to be paid. However, if and when the insurance company finds out that you lied about your pre-existing conditions or medical history at the time of signing up for the policy, the result won’t be one you want to experience. Hence, it is imperative that you tell the absolute truth when signing up.

Lastly, make sure you conduct thorough research about all the healthcare plans available to you before making the decision about which one is best suited to your needs. Simply signing up with a plan that you friend or member of the family recommended is definitely not the way to go as what worked for them might not work for you.